President Camille N. Johnson Shares 5 Tips From Her Mission Experiences

 
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By Trent Toone, Church News

PROVO, Utah

In the decade from 2009 to 2019, every member of Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson’s family engaged in full-time missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Son Austin Johnson started his mission in Samoa in 2009.

Son Connor Johnson departed for Ecuador in 2013.

President Johnson and her husband, Brother Doug Johnson, presided over the Peru Arequipa Mission beginning in 2016. Their third son, Tanner Johnson, began his mission in Italy the same year.

Learn more in the Church News Getting to know Primary General President Camille N. Johnson and how faith defined her life, propelled her to look forward

 

While thousands of miles apart, the memorable decade of family missionary service enriched their lives, fortified their faith and brought them closer to the Savior Jesus Christ, President Johnson told a vast missionary audience in a devotional at the Church’s Provo Missionary Training Center on Tuesday, August 30.

“Your mission will expand your circle of love, it will change people back home, it will change your friends in the mission and most importantly, it will change you,” she said.

Drawing upon her missionary and lifelong gospel experience, President Johnson taught the missionaries about five topics:

1. Seeking revelation by counseling in councils and with the Lord
2. Recognizing how the Spirit is speaking to you
3. Embracing changes in mission life and offering a “mighty change” of Heart to the Lord
4. Experiencing the joy of daily repentance
5. Doing the spiritual work with faith to seek miracles

“Perhaps you think I have addressed unrelated topics. But there is something, someone that ties this all together,” she said. “It is our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose name you wear on your chest. I testify that He lives and loves you.”

President Johnson bore witness to the process of receiving and recognizing revelation that comes when women and men counsel together.

 
“I have certainly seen it and felt it this year in my assignments in Primary and now Relief Society,” she said.

Missionaries can participate in the same revelatory process as they take part in districts, zones, missionary leadership councils, ward councils and with ward mission leaders, not to mention companionships.

“There is revelation scattered amongst you, and as you counsel with one another, with unity of purpose, I can promise you will be blessed by the Spirit to guide, direct and inspire you in your councils and in your missionary service,” she said.

Missionaries should also counsel with the Lord through “spoken and unspoken” prayers.

“Counsel with your Father in Heaven, early and often,” President Johnson said. “You need His and the Savior’s help, and They want to help you.”
 

2. Recognizing How the Spirit Is Speaking to You

As missionaries counsel in councils and with the Lord, it is important to recognize how the Holy Ghost is communicating with you.

The Spirit can prompt us to do something difficult or outside our comfort zone; it can prompt us to do something good, right, kind or generous; it provides feelings of comfort, peace, joy and hope; it can enlighten minds; it can protect from harm and deception; and it can guide our words, she said.

President Johnson cautioned against “analysis paralysis” — when people question if an idea is a spiritual prompting or a personal idea and don’t respond. She also urged missionaries to find their own space in the day for receiving personal revelation. Revelation flows to her as she takes daily walks without listening to books or podcasts.

“Your mission experience will be a remarkable time for you — one in which you can cultivate your ability to recognize and understand the Spirit,” she said. “I invite you to ask in your prayers, for the Spirit to manifest Himself in a way you can recognize and understand.”

 
3. Embracing Changes in Mission Life and Offering a “Mighty Change” of Heart to the Lord

When a potted plant’s roots have become “root-bound,” forming a tangled mess with no more room to grow, a gardener trims and loosens the roots before moving it to a larger pot with fresh soil. Add water and the plant again begins to thrive.

Mission life is full of constant change, from new cultures and languages to transfers and new companions. A new missionary can sometimes feel like a plant that has been “up-rooted, removed from a comfortable home,” with “roots loosened” and placed “in new pot with new soil.” President Johnson counseled the missionaries to not resist change but embrace it. Ask, “What can I learn from this new experience?”

“Perhaps there is a bit of discomfort in all this change,” President Johnson said. “But sisters and elders, I want you to know that change is good. ... Change is like loosening the roots because the Lord doesn’t want us to be root-bound.”

President Johnson testified that “change inspired by the Lord is always good” and “change is evidence of our Heavenly Father’s interest in you — individually.”

“I hope you will recognize the changes that you have already experienced, and the changes that will come in the mission field, as evidence of God’s love for and interest in you,” she said. “He will sanctify you, prepare you to enter His presence and return to Him, if you let Him prevail in your life.”

Beyond the physical and temporal changes of mission life is the most important change — a missionary’s “whole heart, might, mind and strength commitment to Jesus Christ.” She invited the missionaries to examine the story of Ammon in the Book of Mormon for additional insight.

“Ammon used all his physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy in loving and serving. That is heart, might, mind and strength missionary service,” President Johnson said. “The sooner you decide to make that change, the happier you will be as a missionary.”

 
4. Experiencing the Joy of Daily Repentance

Another “change” President Johnson discussed was the need for daily repentance. She taught the principle using her son Connor’s experience as he ran in the Deseret News marathon in July.

Near the end of the race, Connor accidentally went off course and missed two aid stations on a blistering July day. Fortunately, he was able to use his phone to contact a family member who helped him correct his course back to the marathon route and brought him water, which allowed him to finish the race.

President Johnson compared staying on course in a marathon to daily repentance and staying on the covenant path. She referenced President Russell M. Nelson’s talk on the same topic in the April 2022 general conference.

“What’s the quick correction we can make if we get off course, if we get off the covenant path? It is joyful repentance,” she said. “Don’t delay repentance. Get back on course quickly.”

 
5. Doing the Spiritual Work With Faith to Seek Miracles

President Johnson’s final point also stemmed from President Nelson — maintaining positive spiritual momentum by seeking and expecting miracles.

“I hope you will do the spiritual work — being both obedient and diligent to seek miracles,” she said. “Pray for the kind of faith that produces miracles.”

President Johnson told about a sister missionary in their mission who had a knee problem and needed to return home. Before she flew home, the Johnsons went with her to visit a woman she taught who was baptized. The woman was dying of cancer. They ministered to the women and President Johnson’s husband gave her a blessing.

As they visited with the woman’s family, President Johnson’s husband challenged one of the woman’s sons to be baptized. To their surprise, he accepted.

The sister missionary returned home, received medical attention and later returned to finish her mission. The faithful mother died but her son was baptized. The woman’s husband also returned to activity in the Church. The whole experience was laced with miracles.

“Obedience, diligence and faith in Jesus Christ produce miracles,” she said. “And many times they are not the miracles we expect.”

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